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“So are we,” she says. “We’re on your team. We only want what is best for Yuliana.”
I absorb her words and try to believe them. It would be nice if she meant them. I’d love to not be doing this on my own.
She gestures to the door and backs away. I push it open and pop my head inside. “Yuli?”
Before I can even get fully in the door, Yuliana is wrapped around my legs.
I pat her back and run my fingers through the mussed curls in her hair. “What’s going on, honey? I heard you’re having a hard day.”
She buries her face harder against my thigh.
“Can you look at me?” I ask.
She tucks her chin, retreating even further. If she’s like this with me, I can only imagine how she was with everyone else.
“Is everything okay in here?” Mrs. Wilkens asks.
Yuliana flinches at the sound of her voice. She loops her arms around my leg like she’s expecting someone to try to yank her away.
“We’re okay.”
“Ms. Garcia is really nice,” she says, peeking around my leg to look at Yuliana. “She’s excited to be your substitute until Ms. Albrecht returns.”
Yuli shakes her head and mumbles something against my leg.
“What, honey?” I rub a circle on her back. “You have to speak up.”
She shakes her head again, but doesn’t repeat herself.
“The rest of your class is at storytime right now,” Mrs. Wilkens says. “There are puppets and songs. It’s really fun.”
Yuli grabs on more tightly to me.
I know what Mrs. Wilkens is trying to do, but it’s not as if Yuliana doesn’t want to participate. She does, she really does. Even on hard days, she comes home bursting with stories about what the other kids were talking about and the stories they read and the games they played.
She absorbs every detail. There is nothing she wants more than to join in on the fun.
She just… can’t.
Standing here with the principal on one side and Yuliana at my feet, I feel helpless. I can’t explain to Mrs. Wilkens something I hardly understand myself. And I can’t make Yuliana join in with her classmates.
“I think we’re going to go home for the day. We’ll try again tomorrow.”
Mrs. Wilkens smiles, but it’s thin. She feels the same way I do.What good is that going to do? We’re going to end up in this same position again tomorrow.
“Come on, Yuli.” I uncurl her arms from around my leg and lead her towards the door. “Time to go.”
The entire walk through the office and down the main hallway to the front doors, Yuliana keeps her eyes pinned to the floor. She is slouched and defeated. It breaks my heart.
“Did you have a hard day?” My voice breaks around the question. I clear my throat to hide it.
She nods.
“Use your words, please.”
She sniffles, glancing up at me. “Yes.”
I push her hair away from her forehead, but she shakes it right back down over her eyes.
